Dayton's Brian Elliott likes a heavy workload.
Well, in the last four games, he's certainly got his wish.
Last Sunday, Elliott stopped 49 of 53 shots in a shocking upset win over the best team in the league, the Calgary Chinook.
Two days later, he stopped 40 of 43 Thunder shots on goal as Dayton beat Niagara Falls, 4-3.
The next night, in the second of three games in a row over three days, Elliott stopped 50 of 52 Barracuda shots as Ottawa needed overtime to beat the Musicmen, 4-3.
Tonight, however, was the masterpiece of these four performances.
Facing the desperate Fort Erie Falcons, who were winless in their last seven games and facing an offensive drought, Elliott stopped 72 out of 73 Falcon shots as the two teams skated to a 1-1 tie.
To recap...
In the last four Dayton games, Elliott has stopped 211 out of 223 shots he faced, posting a stellar .947 save percentage, a 2.91 goals against average, as he's posted a 2-1-1 record, with three of these games coming on the road.
"In this style of hockey, you always aim to at least meet your NHL actuals that are on the league disk. So, my targets for this CCHL season is a 910% save percentage and 2.55 GAA. Right now, they tell me I'm right on the save percentage rate of 910%. My season to date GAA is 3.93, which I think will come down and hopefully hit my goal of 2.55," said Elliott.
In tonight's game, the opening period was a scoreless one as Fort Erie outshot the visitors 23-11. Dayton's Nate MacKinnon opened the scoring with his 6th goal of the year with assists to Sean Monahan and Jake Guentzel.
The game remained tight with no further scoring until the 10:56 mark of the third period, when former Musicman Patrice Bergeron scored his 4th of the year, with helpers from DeHaan and James Van Riemsdyk.
"Yes, we're gripping our sticks pretty damn tight lately, eight goals in the last four games isn't nearly good enough for us. All we can do is keep grinding. It'll turn around." said winger Blake Wheeler.
In the end, Fort Erie had dominated the shots on goal against Dayton, yet had to walk away with just a point, the same as the team from Ohio earned.
"Three points out of three road games against the teams we've been playing? Damn right we'll take it." said GM Bill Corfield.
Asked what he thought of Elliott's performance of late, Corfield may have revealed his plans to place the veteran goalie on the block.
"Look, my job is to create the best possible future for the Musicmen. We felt Brian Elliott was a great addition last season for the playoffs, but also to provide some leadership for the rest of the team as we go through these growing pains. We hadn't planned on trying to trade Brian Elliott, trust me. However, I would be remiss if I didn't explore the possibilities of such a move. Brian may be playing his way out of Dayton, who knows?" said Corfield.
What's next?
Dayton continues its road trip with a 7:05pm game against the Reign in Seattle, Washington. The Musicmen and Reign are tied for 9th place in the Corfield Conference with identical 8-12-1 records on the season. Both teams are just two points out of a playoff berth and just five points behind third place in the Conference.
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